Series: Jesus Is Better- The Better Apostle [#2]
HARDER THAN A ROCK
Hebrews 3:7-19
Introduction:
Have you ever met someone, that no matter how nice you are to them, they are never nice back? This morning our text gives us a warning? The warning is for the Christian; but the warning is also extremely important for the unsaved. This is the 2nd warning in this Book.
Hebrews 3:7-19 (NIV)
“So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, `Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.' So I declared on oath in my anger, `They shall never enter my rest.'" See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. As has just been said: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion." Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.”
1. Warning to the Christian.
Will you hear?
Don’t harden you’re hearing to:
God’s Word.
Prayer.
God’s service.
Worship.
Witnessing.
Have we angered God?
John 11:35 (NIV)
“Jesus wept”.
Why did Jesus weep? Jesus wept because of the condition of the world. They doubted Jesus. Do we doubt God? Every time you do it yourself, you doubt God’s power. Every time you do not follow God’s guidelines for your life set down in Scripture, you doubt God. Every time you have to see it to believe it, you doubt God. Do you doubt God’s provision for you?
Does our church glorify or anger God?
Why do we have ministries in our church? Who is getting the credit for these ministries? Why do we always look at the negative things that happen and dwell upon them instead of the blessings that God is providing us with.
Our text is point in case. God provided for the Israelites over and over again, but they murmured and grumbled against God more often than not. They yelled out at God, “Why did You deliver us from slavery just to see us wander around and die?”
Why do we constantly need it “my way” or else and not God’s way? It is time for Bel Aire Baptist Church to be one; serving for one purpose, serving One person, for the glory of One: and the One is God. Stop doubting so that we can enter into the rest of God.
This rest I am speaking of is a spiritual rest we find in Christ when we surrender to Him. When we come to Christ by faith, we find salvation rest. When we yield and learn of Him and obey Him by faith, we enjoy submission rest. The 1st is “peace with God”; the 2nd is the “peace of God”. It is by obeying God by faith and surrendering to His will that the rest enters unto us.
2. Warning to the unsaved.
God convicts us of the sin in our lives through the Holy Spirit. God is pleading with you not to keep saying not to Him. There is only one way to not enter into God’s rest of salvation, which is Heaven.
Hebrews 3:18-19 (NIV)
“And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.”
The longer you say no, the harder your heart becomes. It will get to the point that right and wrong are all the same. God loves all of us, He died for us; but God is also a just and fair God. Many will harden their hearts and will die saying no to God and will never enter into Heaven. What a tragedy. How could this happen?
Can people have another chance? Maybe you have been saying no to God over and over; but until you die, you are not out of chances. Now understand, I cannot tell you if you will get another chance or not. You may, but are you willing to take that chance? No matter what you have done, regardless of how bad it was, God will still allow you into Heaven if you surrender to Him as your Savior. There is only one way, and that way is Jesus.
Conclusion:
Stop telling God no. Christian are you telling God no, or not right now? Are you just wandering around, griping along the way, because you refuse to follow God? Unsaved person, are you telling God no? If you have never prayed asking Jesus to forgive you of your sins, and repenting (turning) from them, and asking Him to save you: then you are not a born-again Christian. Just because you are a member or have been baptized is not enough. You have to do as the verse says, believe in your heart, and confess with your mouth. Just saying a prayer won’t do it. It must be from the heart.
